For a crafty kind of life

Basic Craft kit

Hi guys so I wanted to talk about a basic craft kit. There are so many fun crafting tools out there and if you tend to get a little ‘shop happy’ like me the cost can really add up. So let’s take a step back, what are the essentials?

I personally feel that you can make so many craft items without the ‘correct’ tools. Having the correct tools just makes the job quicker and neater. So the image below is a craft tool kit slowing building and building, keep reading for information on each item.

1. Basic starter pack:

Paper, pencil, ruler, glue & scissors
Most people have these items and if not they can all be picked up at a 99p store or pound land.

2.Basic paper trimmer

I love my basic paper trimmer, it came from Home Bargains for less than £5. This trimmer only measures up to 3″ so when I needed to cut anything larger than this I would use my ruler to mark a cut line then line it up with my blade. You do not need an expensive cutter right away!

3. Paper punches

Paper punches come in all sizes shapes and prices! You can also buy Pre-cut embellishments if you feel that is more cost effective.

4. Different glue types

Once you get going you will find that the good old fashion glue stick isn’t always the best. Wet glue and double sided tape are great. The tapes are sold in either rolls you use manually and have to peel off backing paper or automatic applicators (a bit like the tip-ex mouse but for glue,) Again you can spend a lot or a little on the items, Hobby Craft do great glue at really good prices, I think the roll and the wet glue pictures are about £2 each.

5. Stamps, inks & pens

I prefer the unmounted stamps as they are easier to store. I’m not a great lover of stamping but I think for me it’s because I’m not great at colouring the stamped image. The spectrum noir pens make professional colouring so easy but they are a little out of my price range just now. If I’m stuck for a cute image I will just google one and print it, cut it out and boom I’m done! It’s a bit of a cheat but until I can afford my fancy pens I can’t do much else.

6. Fancy paper cutter

Okay so I bought an upgrade on my original cutter it has a longer measuring section and is by far the best cutter iv used. This one is by Fiskars and is available online or at hobby craft.

7. Score board

This is the Martha Stewart score board and I LOVE it!!! Before I bought this I did all my scoring with the back side of a pair of scissors and a ruler. That method worked really well but was time consuming and didn’t give such a professional look. That being said I did make a really great envelope album using the ‘Kathy Orta’ tutorial on YouTube ( check her out she is fantastic) using just my basic paper trimmer and scoring with the back of my scissors.

8. Craft knife and self healing mat

So the craft knife is as you would expect a small blade used to cut paper / chipboard. Think of it as a girls version of a Stanley knife. I did I fact use a stanley knife first as I had one already.
The self healing mat is a great workspace saver, it’s like your paper chopping board. You can slice away and and the cuts you make seal back up.

9. Die cutter
Die cutting is when you cut a particular image from card stock or paper. You can get manual or automatic die cutters. The one in the image is my Cricut. It’s an amazing machine but very pricey, I got mine second hand from Gumtree. If you want to know more about the Cricut search YouTube there are already so many great videos showcasing what it can do I would be wasting my time showing you.

So there you have it a Paper craft kit showing the progression you can make and how slowing adding different items you can build an amazing collection of goodies.

To avoid overspending set yourself up an Amazon wish list and give yourself a budget each month to spend. Every time you see an item you want, on Amazon or any other website, add it to your wish list so you don’t forget about it. You can also share your wish list with friends and family before birthdays and Christmas.

If you need to know more about which types of glue to use check out what Lemon Jitters wrote about Glue.

Do you want to know more about Inks?
This video from Simons Says stamp goes over the basicsYouTube
You can also download the cute reference guide above from Creating Keepsakes as a PDF

When it comes to rulers, this is the one for me!This is the best ruler for your craft kit! It features a metal edge to use with a craft knife and is clear with measurements right across the ruler so you can easily measure 1/8 inch in from the paper edge.

It has small holes along one edge, perfect for marking book bindings. It has a standard ruler edge and is acrylic so you can even use it as a stamp block!